This past weekend witnessed an event held in Australia that showcased the robotics future. Known as the 2015 Robotronica Festival, the celebration presented cutting-edge robotics in a series of workshops, demonstrations, games, and discussions. The publicity for the event included the following statement in a news article.

Take part in a journey from the beginning of imaginary robotic life right up to them evolving almost as clever as humans.

Robotronica was held at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and basically was a festival of all things robotic. Not just the current state of robotics, but the robotics future was explored and presented at the Brisbane, Australia event. Its primary aim is to educate people about robotics and its future. In 2013, the first occurrence of the festival attracted over 10,000 people.

Part of the attraction this year was the chance to meet the one of the world’s first cyborg artists. He has an implanted antenna in his head that extends over his head to dangle in front of his forehead. Although he is colorblind, his implant allows him to hear colors.

Personally, I see this festival as more than just a robotics future convention. It was certainly billed as more. And considering its popularity, it shows how popular robotics is with the public. People are curious about robots and how to relate to the coming world of robotics. Do people need to fear robots or embrace them? What is your opinion about this idea? Let me know…

In a future mission to a planet, a robot may need to find its way around without the benefit of prior knowledge of the surface. Robots in these situations will need to use a process called SLAM or Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping. For the last three decades perfecting the process of SLAM has become the gold standard of robotics research. This article from PhysOrg.com explains how this process is being studied for applications to future robots. In the article, Matteo Matteucci, a roboticist at the Politecnico di Milano University in Italy, states “SLAM is an essential building block of autonomous robots because robots, such as planetary rovers and undersea research craft, cannot be provided with an accurate map beforehand. In such situations, the only solution is for them to create a representation of the environment as they go and determine their location in it by themselves.”

Check out the story in the links below. Also, take a look at The Rawseeds Project for additional background on this topic.